Marsh’s fa­ther was pas­tor of the Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Mag­nol­ia, Io­wa. His gift for the pi­a­no was ev­i­dent at an ear­ly age, and af­ter he grad­u­at­ed from high school, Wil­bur Chap­man asked him to play for the Wino­na Lake Chau­tau­qua and Bi­ble Con­fer­ence in In­di­a­na. He lat­er taught at the Bi­ble In­sti­tute of Los An­ge­les (1915-1919) and the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Red­lands (1919-1926). He stu­died mu­sic in France in the 1920’s, and be­came pres­i­dent of the Eu­ro­pe­an School of Mu­sic and Art in Fort Wayne, In­di­a­na. From 1928 to 1932, he played the or­gan at the First Pres­by­ter­i­an Church. In 1932, he moved to Flor­i­da to be­come pro­fes­sor of or­gan at the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Flor­i­da, Gaines­ville, and to serve as or­gan­ist and choir di­rect­or at the First Bap­tist Church. In 1935, he moved to Cal­i­for­nia, where he worked as dis­trict sup­er­vis­or for the Fed­er­al Mu­sic Pro­ject in San Di­e­go un­til 1939. He al­so played the or­gan and di­rect­ed the choir at St. James-by-the-Sea Epis­co­pal Church in La Jol­la (1936-1956).